Simon Starling: Cuttings

Simon Starling is part of a young generation of conceptual artists whose work is more concerned with narrative than their predecessors' has been. Pieces like Inverted Retrograde Theme, USA (House for a Songbird), which shrinks scale models of modular concrete homes into birdhouses on slim wood supports, investigate modernistic design objects, materials and concepts that exemplify the prevailing ideologies and production factors of specific regions, cultures, and generations. By breaking down his source material and transforming it, Starling writes a new chapter in its history while raising questions about complex cultural and aesthetic phenomena of our time. Cuttings is an unprecedented overview of his work, and is literally cut away itself, with pages trimmed into different lengths in different sections to delineate coverage of 2005 projects, including those for a first survey exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Basel; previous works listed from A to Z; and several texts, including two essays and an interview.